Basic Things To Know About The Elements Of A Research Paper

With any formal piece of writing there are particular basic elements that need to be included in order the work meets the required standard. This is especially important if the piece of writing needs to be academic standard for example a research paper.

Introduction. The purpose of the Introduction is to set the scene.

You will need to describe the problem you are researching and how your work fits within your field of study.

You will to discuss the problem and its significance as well as give an interesting example.

To support your claims, you need to provide authoritative sources. This will take the form of producing a review of the current academic literature that is available to support or dispute your claims. Be critical with your choices, keep it relevant.

Be conscious of the vocabulary that you use. If you use too much jargon, it may lessen the value of your work. Be wary of using terms that are too limited and will not transfer easily to any examples that you may offer the reader.

The Hypothesis. This is proposed explanation that as to why the problem you are researching is true or untrue depending on the variables that you use to test the explanation.

It is very difficult to get the exact wording of your hypothesis. It will take several attempts for you to develop a sentence that can succinctly explain the research.

Don't over generalize, keep tight control on the variables that you have targeted and make comparisons with the work of others.

Method. The golden rule here is to make sure that you are give the reader enough information so they could if they wanted replicate your work.

Give step by step instructions that can be easily followed,

List all of the variables and how they were manipulated.

Think ahead to what the reader (and this includes your professor), may regard as an imperfection or a weakness in your design. Offer a solution.

Include the data and any statistical analysis.

Discussion. This is where you can support or refute your argument based on the findings.

You need to highlight how your findings validates your hypothesis. Define what is regarded as being valid evidence.

Relate the findings of your work and how it may effect the works that your sited in your literature review. Discuss whether further research in this area would be advantageous.

Conclusion. This is a chance for you to restate your findings and to provide a summary of your work.

References. Even if you think that you know what referencing format you need to use, always double check. Once you have double-checked make sure that you use the up-to -date version of the format.